Eduard Ole (20 May 1898 – 24 November 1995) was an Estonian painter. Some of his most representative works are on permanent exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum of Estonia. In 1973, Ole published in Sweden his two-volume illustrated memoirs ("On the Big Highway") I and II. A new edition of these books were published in Estonia in 2010. Expressionism, Cubism Ole was the seventh child in a farmer's family with eight children. Very young, Ole came in contact with modern western art by means of reproductions in the art school library and by visiting galleries and museums in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia between 1914 and 1918, where he became particularly influenced by German Expressionism. Ole returned to Estonia in 1918, when his country became independent, and worked as a theatre designer, teacher of drawing, art critic and as of 1923, as a professional artist. That year, together with Friedrich Hist (1900–1941) and Felix Randel (1901–1977, named Johansen until 1936) he formed the Group of Estonian Artists in Tartu. This group was able to organize a whole series of exhibitions dedicated to Cubism experimentation, although Ole himself never became totally non-figurative, retaining a strong link with the material world. Their work was primarily distinguished by modest geometricized abstraction and decorative colourism suggested by Synthetic Cubism, rather than by explorations of simultaneity or collage. A good example of this phase is the work Natüürmort kitarriga () of 1925. Ole's cubist period lasted only until 1926. That year he began to draw with India ink. Some examples of this phase are the works Rannal () of 1926, Jalgpallurid () of between 1926 and 1927, Seltskond () and Fokstrott () both of 1927. Trips to Paris and Portraits In 1925 Ole had his works exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants organized by the Société des Artistes Indépendants, to which followed a study trip to Paris in 1927, a trip that gave him fresh impulses. During this trip Ole painted motives inspired in the city such as Pariisi motiiv (), Pariis, Eiffeli torn (), and Pariis (). As a consequence to Ole's first study trip to Paris, the cubist severity of form vanished and he preferred to depict large figurative compositions, dramatically staged, with soft planes and colours and nuanced pastel tones. It was during this time (1929) that